A pair of federal inmates, however, confessed last year to the credit union robbery and said that Pugh had no role.

Ronaldo Gaddis and Kenterrio Scott signed affidavits admitting that they put shirts over their heads, picked up guns and walked into the credit union on July 2, 2007.

Credit union employees testified at Pugh's trial that they heard one of the robbers call the other "Brent." Scott stated in his affidavit that he yelled at Gaddis to get his attention and made up a name to hide his identity.

Gaddis stated that he split the haul with Scott and a lookout, Darmarcus Hall, with each getting $10,000 to $11,000.

"I know who Brent Pugh is, but we were never friends," Gaddis wrote. "Brent Pugh was not involved in this robbery."

This week, Granade granted a request - with the support of the U.S. Attorney's Office -- to vacate Pugh's conviction.

Defense lawyer Greg Hughes is seeking a new trial on the Compass robbery, based on a claim that investigators failed to turn over information from a DNA test that pointed to other suspects.

According to court records, testing conducted by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences showed that clothing found at the robbery scene held DNA evidence from three other men - but not Pugh.

Hughes got a copy of the report from a lawyer who represented another man, Gerrell Stallworth, who was charged by Mobile County prosecutors in the same robbery case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office conceded in a court filing this week that Pugh should get a new trial, but insisted that failure to make the report available was inadvertent.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Overstreet initially blamed the FBI for not giving his office a copy of the report. Late Friday, he filed another document in court indicating that the FBI maintains that it did turn over the report.

Overstreet said the U.S. Justice Department will investigate the matter.

Special Agent Angela Tobon, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Mobile, declined to comment.